An Extensive Travel Guide For The Bahamas: Pearl Island

So, you’re going to The Bahamas or maybe you hope to one day. I’m extremely happy for you because it is an exceptional place to go to for a relaxing time away from the chaos of the world. You’ve have this vision that it is going to a stress free vacation that you don’t need to worry about anything besides what type of cocktail you’re going to have or what beach you’re going to tan on under the blazing, beautiful sun. Here is where I come in. I’ve been there, I’ve done that and I want to make sure your vision comes true – because it can. Which is why I have a new series, An Extensive Travel Guide For The Bahamas. Check out my welcome and Our Hotel post to get you started. Once you’ve done that – We are going to talk Pearl Island. 

Before you go any further, let me first tell you what Pearl Island is and why we chose to go on this excursion. Pearl Island is an island. [good one] But actually. It is an island away from the island essentially. If you want to explore other parts of the Bahamas then you’d go to places like – Pearl Island, Rose Beach, or Pink Sand Beaches to relax. Yes. I know what you’re thinking. Whats the point? Here you go…

Excursion 1: Pearl Island

Location: Nassau, Bahamas

Date: Tuesday, April 24th

Time: 11:00am – 4:00pm

3 Reasons Why We Chose To Go To Pearl Island:

(Pearl Island is a private beach)

• There was a lighthouse
  • I have this small obsession with lighthouses. I don’t have a good reason other than they are really cool to look at 🙂
• There was onsite snorkeling, lunch was included in the ticket price, and there was onsite drinks to buy (pretty sure this qualifies as 3 different reasons, oh well)
• It was close to our hotel
  • this way we didn’t have to use up time for traveling
  • We also got the chance to ride on a boat cruising on the ocean – way cool!

Pre-planning tips:

• Booked excursion through Viator two weeks before our trip
• There are very specific dates that they go out to Pearl Island. Book this excursion first and plan your others around it

Let me show you the good stuff…

Breathtaking Clean Ocean Waters

Let me back up a little bit here. When I would sun bath in the Wisco-Disco, I wouldn’t put any sun lotion on what-so-ever. So, I fought my family on this vacation because they kept insisting that I put sun lotion on even if it was the least blocking one. Because I am stubborn (or you could say stupid for this one) I didn’t put any on, I refused because my process is to get burnt and then I tan. It’s just how it works for me. (yes, it’s bad)

This stupidity resulted in getting sun poisoning all because when you sit on a beautiful island in the Bahamas for 5 HOURS and refuse to put sun lotion on – you get burnt… really bad. What is sun poisoning? This is the question I got from people who were looking at me like I was broken because I was literally the color of a lobster. Sun poisoning is basically a severe sunburn that is so bad that it can make you ill. Apparently, I have read it can be fatal so that’s interesting.

Now, if you remember we went to Pearl Island on Tuesday and left on Friday. So, for the rest of our vacation I was in utter pain wearing sweatshirts and pants. To this day I still have tan lines from that swimsuit. The only part that didn’t affect me much was my face because I had makeup on that had a mild SPF (sun protection factor). #cool #lessonlearned

Luckily, You are reading this and either yelling at the top of your lungs that you think I’m an idiot or you are with me and now know that it’s the sun is much brighter in the Bahamas than Wisconsin 🙂

So, take and use your sun lotion because it’s hot.

Snorkeling

So, snorkeling was really interesting. I was actually really excited for this part of Pearl Island until, I wasn’t. I have never snorkeled before – and – I may or may not be afraid of the ocean. I’m not sure why because I don’t have some sort of terrifying story or anything. I am really freaked out by what is in the ocean. I mean, think about it – there are some seriously large creatures that come from the ocean! It’s scary!

So, the four of us sat in the mini class they had at the island where they give you a [very] quick lesson on how to snorkel then you get going. Zach ended up being the first one of all the island guests to go into the water (he is so brave). Then there were my parents and myself who were next. It isn’t easy putting those flappers on and THEN having to walk down the steps you see in Zach’s picture. We managed to get into the water but then mom’s flapper shoe came off and it all went downhill from there.

Zach was all the way to a different zip code and my mom and I ended up making our way back to land because it just wasn’t for us. She couldn’t get her shoe to work and I was having a heart attack being in open water. #fail I guess it’s back to tanning. Oh well.  Zach and dad had a great time!!

Pick Up & Drop Off

You have to taxi to the dock (the name of the dock is in the email in which you get when you register). We had a slight issue from our hotel to the dock because our taxi driver did not know where the dock was. Now, this is rare because 90% of the taxi drivers know that there are a whole ton of tourists so they are trained to know where all the major site seeing places are. Unfortunately, our girl was new or did not need to go there very often. She had to stop and ask someone. We made it to the dock on time as you can obviously see.

Pearl Island Positives

• Private
  • You were on this island with people who also paid for the excursion
• Snorkeling was an option
  • Even though I didn’t participate – it is an amazing option for island goers to do!
• It was clean
• There was a bar and music that made it feel very party-like
  • The drinks weren’t too bad
• Plenty of room to walk around or lay out (obviously since I managed to plenty long)
• The Island staff were very friendly and accommodating
• The lighthouse was beautiful with amazing views
• As you can see in the video – a skinny fish that zach managed to capture on the camera – that was from Pearl island. We saw 3 of these fish – it is a Houndfish. Kind of scary.

Pearl Island Not-So-Greats

• Lunch was provided but in my opinion it wasn’t very good.
  • It is hard to complain when something is included but I guess you hope that because you are paying so much that everything would be spectacular.
  • The buffet lunch they provided was salad, barbecue chicken, peas n rice, and fried plantains. There was also a drink provided but it was juice and the cup is really small. Cheers.
• There were not any beach games that you could use
  • The only things they had were some children books and some board games and puzzles
• I wish they would have had a local band instead of a radio playing. It would have felt a bit more authentic
• You cannot come and go
  • They only have one drop off and one pick up so if you were ‘done laying out’ you can’t just get on the boat and left. You are there for the full 5 hours

Would I go again? No. It is definitely a one time thing in my opinion. I get bored pretty easily and there weren’t  that many things to do to take up the full five hours of being on the island. I do not regret going (besides the fact that I got severely burnt which was my fault). The reason we didn’t do the Pink Sandy beach was because it was just a pink beach. I’d get a few pictures and feel like I’d need to move onto the next site whereas at least Pearl Island had snorkeling, lunch and the lighthouse.

So, I hope you enjoyed these remarks on our adventure to Pearl Island. Thank you for taking an interest in our trip and if this helps for your trip to the Bahamas at all I will be forever joyful.

Please enjoy our highlight video if you missed it in the last post.

Our 2018 Highlight Video – Nassau, Bahamas